Many peripherals to computer networks include a scanner component. One example of such a peripheral is an “all-in-one” device, also known as a multifunction peripheral (MFP) in that it has the capability to perform the multiple functions of scanning hardcopy documents, copying, and printing. Another example is a digital network copier that scans in documents from an automatic document feeder, does high volume copying, and has the capabilities of binding, collating, folding, stacking, stapling, stitching, edge-trimming, paginating, and printing on substrates of varied composition. Each of these peripherals, when in communication with an interconnecting network, can be described as being a transmitter device.
A transmitter device is an appliance that has a keyboard, a display, and a scanner. The transmitter device need not have a printer. A digital camera is a type of transmitter device, but in comparison to the foregoing, it is not as useful for handling documents and typically lacks the resolution and ability to rapidly and repetitively transfer information after scanning to a repository. Transmitter devices are generally distinguishable from devices such as laptop PCs (personal computers) and pocket PCs by their limited purpose and limited user interface or input/output capabilities. For example, a typical user interface for a transmitter device 102 includes a front menu panel with limited screen space and a limited number of buttons. In addition, a transmitter device 102 is typically oriented toward performing one general task such as scanning. By contrast, devices such as laptop and pocket PCs often provide multiple and varied means of input/output such as a full screen display, a QWERTY keyboard, a trackball mouse, speakers, microphones, PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) slots, portable media drives and the like. These devices are capable of performing multiple functions through executing various software applications such as word processing applications, spreadsheet applications, financial applications, network browsers and network messaging applications.
In an exemplary digital transmitting operation, a hardcopy of a document can be presented to the scanner portion of a transmitter device. After scanning, the transmitter device transforms the scanned image into a digital representation of the document that is then saved in a data format, such as in a bit map data format or in a Portable Document Format (PDF). Electronic messaging can be used to send an electronic mail (e-mail) from the transmitter device with an attachment of the document in the data format. The e-mail can be sent to recipients over the interconnecting network, where the recipients have an e-mail address that a user manually enters at the transmitter device or that user specifies using a defined list of recipient e-mail addresses. Similarly, documents can be scanned from a transmitter device and deposited in directories on workstations and servers in the corporate intranet or on the general internet.
A corporation typically configures a corporate network as one or more intranets to share corporate resources and information. An intranet is only accessible by a corporation's, or organization's members, employees, or others with authorization. Intranet web sites look and act just like any other web site, but a firewall surrounding the intranet fends off unauthorized access. A firewall examines each message entering or leaving the intranet and blocks those that do not meet specified predetermined security criteria.
Network administrators within an organization typically use one or more device management applications to manage transmitter devices within an organizational or corporate intranet. As an illustration of such transmitter device management applications, consider that Hewlett Packard (HP) JetAdmin® and HP Web JetAdmin® products are used by network administrators to discover, install, monitor and troubleshoot network-connected transmitter devices in an intranet.
Network administrators typically configure firewalls to filter, or block management protocol packets, such as SNMP packets from being sent into and out of organizational, or corporate intranets. Such blocking of management protocol packets prevents unauthorized access and control of transmitter devices within corporate intranets. Thus, transmitter devices are protected from unauthorized access outside of the intranet by one or more intranet firewalls.
Transmitter devices can be stand-alone devices operating in an intranet or they can be dedicated to a host computer in the intranet. Once access is gained by a user to the intranet, the user will also have access to use of any transmitter device within the intranet. An administrator of the intranet may wish to prevent certain intranet users from using certain functions of certain transmitter devices in an intranet. Intranet firewalls will not prevent this access to and use of the transmitter devices by intranet users. It would be beneficial to prevent unauthorized access to transmitter devices within an intranet by intranet users. It may also be important to limit emails that are sent to be for corporate use only. Lastly, it may be important to track where emails are being sent and what documents are being placed onto disk drives within the corporate intranet or out to the internet. Consequently, there is a need for improved methods, apparatuses, and programs that can provide such a capability.